1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to headwear, and more particularly, to headwear that is made of a fabric with an improved elasticity and can be thus adapted to various head sizes of wearers without an additional size adjustable mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a baseball-type cap includes a crown, a visor and a sweatband. The crown is used for covering the head of a wearer to protect the wearer's head and secure the cap on the head. Most of the crowns take the shape of a general hemisphere corresponding to a shape of the wearer's head. The crown includes several panels that are stitched together and connected with one another to define a single crown.
The visor is stitched and fixed to the front of the crown. The visor defines a shield adjacent to the face of the wearer to shield direct sunlight. A hat or a sun cap may be formed with a brim around the crown to perform the same function as that of the visor in the baseball-type cap.
The sweatband is attached to the crown along a lower edge of the inside of the crown and is formed as a band corresponding to the periphery of the wearer's head. The sweatband prevents sweat from running down from the inside of the crown and lightly presses the wearer's head into direct contact with the head so that the cap cannot be easily taken off from the head.
Since the head sizes vary according to the wearers, the cap should be manufactured in consideration of various head sizes of the wearers. Accordingly, a variety of methods of adjusting the cap in accordance with the various head sizes have been presented.
In general, an adjustable cap and a free size cap are provided as a cap capable of adjusting the size of a crown in accordance with the head size.
The adjustable cap is configured in such a manner that the size along a lower edge of the crown can be adjusted in accordance with the head size of the wearer using a size adjustable means attached to one side of the lower edge of the crown.
The conventional adjustable cap includes a visor and a crown, and the crown is composed of several gores. A sweatband may be prepared on an inner face of the crown according to the manufacturer's selection.
An opening is formed at the rear side of the crown opposite to the visor. A strap is attached to one end of the opening and a buckle is attached to the other end thereof, so that the size along the lower edge of the crown can be adjusted. That is, the buckle can adjust the length of the strip, and thus, the wearer can adjust the size of the adjustable cap by adjusting the length of the strap in accordance with his/her head size.
However, the adjustable cap has a problem in that external appearances are not good because the opening is exposed at the rear of the cap and some hairs of the wearer come off from the opening. Further, according to the length of the strap, wrinkles may be formed on the cap and the shape of the cap may be deformed. Moreover, there is another problem in that the size adjustment is very cumbersome because different wearers should adjust the length of the strap in accordance with their head sizes whenever they intend to put on the cap.
To overcome the above problems related to the conventional adjustable cap, the free size cap has been proposed. The conventional free size cap can be applied to a wide range of the head sizes because it is made of a stretchable fabric. In the free size cap, gores of the crown generally comprise the stretchable fabric.
The conventional stretchable fabric comprises warps disposed in a longitudinal direction of the fabric and wefts disposed perpendicular to the warps. The gores in the conventional free size cap can be stretched only by the elasticity of the warps and the wefts because the warps and wefts are disposed in a single layer, respectively (see FIG. 2 and FIG. 3(B)).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,202 to Yan relates to a multi-axially stretchable cap. According to the Yan patent, the gores of the cap are composed of multi-axially stretchable fabric, in which stretchable synthetic fiber are woven in both directions, as weft and wrap. Also, a sweat band includes a thin layer of synthetic foam material. Thus, the stretchable cap can stretch in weft and warp direction to provide an easy fit for the head.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,410 to Lee relates to a self-sizing cap. The self-sizing cap of the Lee patent includes a crown portion, a visor and a sweat band. The crown portion is composed of triangle-shaped fabric panels and it can accommodate a range of head sizes comfortably. The sweat band is composed of two or more layers shaped as an elongated rectangle. The lower edge of the sweat band is flexibly attached to the lower peripheral edge of the crown portion, such that the sweat band can be stowed or deployed. When the sweat band is deployed, it can expand attachment area on the wearer's head and provide more shade and warmth, and also it can have matching or contrasting color combinations.
PCT application No. WO01/05259 relates to a cap with stretchable band. The cap includes a crown and an inner band, wherein the inner band is elastically stretchable at the least along its direction of elongation and includes a liner for encircling the head comfortably. The crown is composed of gores and at least one of the gores is made of elastically stretchable material.
The abovementioned three patents all are related to free size caps, in which the warps or wefts in the caps may expand in accordance with the head size of the wearer and the size of the crown may also change as the warps or wefts expand. However, since the warps or wefts are formed as one layer, the stretchable range of the conventional free size cap is relatively limited.
Furthermore, even slight expansion of the free size cap allows the cap to press the wearer's head with excessive pressure. Thus, if the wearer wears the cap for a long time, he/she may feel a pain and unseemly tracks may be formed on his/her forehead, etc.